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An integral solution is described for flow of an electrically conducting fluid in a plane channel in a magnetic field which is aligned with the direction of the mean flow. It is shown that the presence of the magnetic field retards the development of the velocity profile by producing Lorentz forces which oppose the movement of fluid from the viscous wall region to the core. Solutions are presented for the entry length as a function of the magnetic interaction parameter. Solutions are also given for the dependence of the frictional component of the pressure drop on the magnetic field strength. The transverse pressure gradient produced by Lorentz forces is discussed for a typical case.

The propagation of internal Alfvén-ácoustic-gravity waves in a compressible, stratified, inviscid, perfectly conducting, isothermal atmosphere in the presence of a horizontal magnetic field is investigated by considering both the horizontal and the vertical component of the group velocity. The vertical component of the group velocity is important because it determines the speed at which energy travels upwards and becomes available for heating the upper regions. The regions of propagation and no propagation of waves are delineated for different magnetic Mach numbers, in a refractive-index domain. The horizontal and vertical group velocities are compared with the corresponding phase velocity of the wave motion. It is found that the horizontal group velocity of the internal waves is always less than the horizontal phase velocity for small magnetic fields and vice versa for large magnetic fields, whereas the vertical group velocity is always opposite in direction to the vertical phase velocity for small magnetic fields and vice versa for large magnetic fields. We have also drawn the reflexion condition in a wave-number-frequency domain for different Mach numbers.

Investigations have been carried out of some aspects of the fine-scale structure of turbulence in grid flows, in boundary layers in a zero pressure gradient and in a boundary layer in a strong favourable pressure gradient leading to relaminarization. Using a narrow-band filter with suitable mid-band frequencies, the properties of the fine-scale structure (appearing as high frequency pulses in the filtered signal) were analysed using the variable discriminator level technique employed earlier by Rao, Narasimha & Badri Narayanan (1971). It was found that, irrespective of the type of flow, the characteristic pulse frequency (say Np) defined by Rao et al. was about 0·6 times the frequency of the zero crossings.

It was also found that, over the small range of Reynolds numbers tested, the ratio of the width of the fine-scale regions to the Kolmogorov scale increased linearly with Reynolds number in grid turbulence as well as in flat-plate boundarylayer flow. Nearly lognormal distributions were exhibited by this ratio as well as by the interval between successive zero crossings.

The values of Np and of the zero-crossing rate were found to be nearly constant across the boundary layer, except towards its outer edge and very near the wall. In the zero-pressure-gradient boundary-layer flow, very near the wall the high frequency pulses were found to occur mostly when the longitudinal velocity fluctuation u was positive (i.e. above the mean), whereas in the outer part of the boundary layer the pulses more often occurred when u was negative. During acceleration this correlation between the fine-scale motion and the sign of u was less marked.

A fluid-mechanical model is developed for representing the mechanism of propulsion of a finite ciliated micro-organism having a prolate-spheroidal shape. The basic concept is the representation of the micro-organism by a prolate-spheroidal control surface upon which certain boundary conditions on the tangential and normal fluid velocities are prescribed. Expressions are obtained for the velocity of propulsion, the rate of energy dissipation in the fluid exterior to the cilia layer, and the stream function of the motion. The effect of the shape of the organism upon its locomotion is explored. Experimental streak photographs of the flow around both freely swimming and inert sedimenting Paramecia are presented and good agreement with the theoretical prediction of the streamlines is found.

A numerical solution of the two-dimensional compressible laminar boundary-layer equations up to the point of separation is presented. For a particular mainstream velocity distribution it is necessary to specify the surface temperature (or the heat flux across the surface), the suction velocity, the free-stream Mach number and the viscosity-temperature relationship for a solution to be generated. The effect upon the position of separation of a hot or cold wall and of varying the free-stream Mach number is given special emphasis. The variations of the skin friction, heat transfer and various boundary-layer thicknesses for compressible flow past a circular cylinder and for flow with a linearly retarded mainstream were found. The behaviour of the solutions close to separation is investigated. Known functions which model the skin friction and heat transfer are introduced and are used to match the numerical solutions with the Buckmaster (1970) expansions.

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the conditions for which the asymptotic description of longitudinal dispersion given by Taylor (1954) would apply. At non-dimensional times following the release of a dye pulse that are significantly larger than those previously investigated, the integrated concentration curves were observed to be skewed. At relatively short times from release the concentration curves appear to be well described by the models presented by Sullivan (1971) and by Chatwin (1973). Some features of the asymptotic behaviour, namely the translation of the modal value of the integrated concentration curve at the discharge velocity and the constant temporal growth rate of the variance, are observed at the longest times following release. On the basis of these observations it is estimated that a non-dimensional time interval of tu*/d = O(105/R*), where R* = u*d/v, u* is the friction velocity, v the kinematic viscosity and d the tube diameter, is required for the Taylor result to become applicable. Thus application of Taylor's theory is significantly restricted in turbulent flows, especially those with irregular boundaries and those that are not stationary. There the variations in the flow must be small with respect to an equivalent ‘development time’ if a value of the ‘local’ longitudinal diffusion coefficient is to have meaning.

High frequency surface waves are generated by the forced heaving of either two half-immersed spheres in infinite water or by a half-immersed sphere in a hemispherical lake. The virtual-mass coefficients can be found, to leading order, in terms of wave-free limit potentials.

Large-scale structures in the form of instability waves are an inherent part of a shearlayer mixing process. Such structures are shown to be present in an acoustically and aerodynamically well behaved jet even at high Mach numbers. They do not directly radiate significant acoustic power in a subsonic jet, but do govern the production of the turbulent fluctuations which radiate broad-band jet noise. Over the whole subsonic Mach number range, a significant increase in jet noise can be produced by exciting the shear layer with a fluctuating pressure at the nozzle of only 0·08 % of the jet dynamic head but with the correct Strouhal number. Such excitation by internal acoustic, aerodynamic or thermal fluctuations could explain the variability of jet noise measurements between different rigs and could also be responsible for some components of ‘excess’ noise.

The problem of the collapse of a vapour/gas bubble attached to a solid wall and initially perturbed from a hemispherical shape is solved numerically by the variational method, in which the bubble's viscosity and compressibility in liquid are neglected. The effects of surface tension on the collapsing bubble are taken into account. The rebounding processes of a non-hemispherical gas bubble are simulated: the gas inside the bubble undergoes an adiabatic process. The results of numerical calculations are given for two initial shapes: one is close to a prolate spheroid, the other is close to an oblate spheroid. The governing equations for the motion of a bubble can be written in matrix form, which is simpler than that derived from perturbation theory. This analysis using the variational method may be applied to more complicated problems.